Reasons Why You Should Not Self-Publish

These are the reasons why I've heard you should not self-publish. (And my answers to them.)

Reason: You'll publish crap. You'll get a reputation for bad writing and no one will buy your books.

Answer: Don't publish crap. Seriously, it's that easy. You have total control over this aspect.

Reason: But writers are too close to their work to realize they can't write worth a darn. It takes years of submitting and getting rejection letters to figure out you need to improve. 

Answer: Don't use agents and publishers as your sounding board. Join a critique group. Get specific advice from veteran writers. Critique others, you'll see what isn't working in other work more easily than your own.  Pick up some books on the craft of writing fiction, and study them. Take the time to do it right. There's nothing magical about getting rejection letters that makes you a better writer. That's just silly.

Reason: Self-published books are riddled with typos and errors.  Do you really want to be lumped in with those?

Answer: Don't publish a book that is riddled with typos and errors. If your book is clean, no one will lump it in with the ones full of errors. Hire an editor. Utilize beta readers. Get as many eyes on the book as you can before you click to publish. And if (heaven forbid) you find an error after you publish, fix it and upload the file again.

Reason: You'll never sell any books, and you'll die in obscurity.

Answer: Why would you not sell any books? If you really believe your book isn't good enough to sell, you probably shouldn't self-publish, or even query agents. There are plenty of other authors selling well on the Kindle/Nook. You literally have millions of potential customers who can purchase your book with one click. And as more ereaders sell, the potential audience increases.

Reason: But ebooks are only 8%* of the market. (*Or substitute whatever % is currently being used.)

Answer: Which traditionally published author sells to 100% of the market? There are over 8 million Kindles out there, not to mention the Nook and all of the other ereaders, or the people reading ebooks on their phones and ipads. If you sold to 1% of just the Kindle owners, you'd sell 80,000 books. In fact, I just crossed that mark. Believe me, if that's all you ever sold, that will be more than a lot of traditionally published authors.

Reason: You won't earn enough to make a living.

Answer: Some indie authors are actually earning a living on their books.  Some are not.  The same can be said for traditionally published authors. I took an unscientific poll over on Kindleboards and asked how many indies were earning a living on their self-published works. 110 people took the pole. 19 of those people said they were earning a living. That's 17.3%. Here's what's even more encouraging. 12 more people said they were almost earning a living. That equals 28.2% who are either earning a living or almost earning a living. And on average ebook sales continue to grow. Plus writers usually are working on more novels to put up for sale.  These percentages will only get better as time goes on.

Reason: If you self-publish, you give up your first rights.

Answer: If you traditionally publish, you give up your first rights too. The question is, which way will actually bring in more money? At the end of this month, I'll have made over $30,000 on one 99 cent book. And that's not the end of the road. I can sell my book for years to come. Does giving up your first rights mean you won't ever be able to sell your book to a traditional publisher if that's what you want? No. Just look at DB Henson, Michael Sullivan, Boyd Morrison, and all the other authors who have sold their books after self-publishing.

Reason: If your book doesn't sell, you'll have ruined your chances for traditional publishing.

Answer: First off, why do you keep insisting the book won't sell? If it's not good enough to sell, go back to the beginning of this post and read about making your book better. If the book is good, I mean really good, but it's still not selling then get some advice about the cover/blurb/price. Does the cover fit the genre? Does it look like other covers from the traditional market? Does the blurb pull you in, and make you want to read more? Is the price too high? The best thing about self-publishing an ebook is you have total control over these things. And if all of these things are perfect, maybe you're not marketing the book in an effective way. How many book bloggers have reviewed the book? Have you done blog interviews? Are you active on social media websites? Even if your book languishes in a trickle of sales for months, that doesn't mean it has to stay that way forever. Just one person posting that they enjoyed your book on their blog could spur a floodgate of sales. And if you sell well, you could get a traditional publishing contract, like the authors mentioned above.

Reason: You'll spend money on hiring a cover artist and an editor that you won't ever make back.

Answer: Forever is a long time to sell something. If you spent $500 on cover art and an editor, you'll have to sell 1,429 books at 99 cents each to earn that money back. If you sell your book for a year, that equals roughly 4 sales a day. If you sell it for two years, that's only 2 sales a day. And most books are selling more and more each month. Honestly this one goes back to believing in the sales potential of your book again.

Reason: You'll never get the recognition that you deserve if you self-publish.

Answer: Do you want recognition or sales/income? (By the way, I'm not so sure that assumption is correct. I made the USA Today and the NYT's best seller lists with my self-published ebook. That was pretty good recognition for me. And I've seen other self-published books crop up on there too.)

Reason: There's no prestige with self-publishing.

Answer: There's no prestige with cleaning toilets either, but I did that for a while to pay the bills.

Reason: You never addressed the fact that if you jump the gun and publish crap you'll ruin your name.

Answer: Okay, I admit, some self-published books need work. However, most of them don't sell well. How does selling a few copies a month of your book ruin your name? No one knows who you are and no one knows you published a poorly written book. And if for some reason you sell four million copies of your utter garbage, and everyone knows you as a hack, you just became a millionaire. You can afford to take time off and learn to write better, and publish future books under a pen name.

After having said all that, I will add that I don't think traditional publishing is bad. There are great reasons why someone would go that route. If you have an offer from a publisher, you have choices and that's fantastic. The more choices you have the better off you are. But 99% of the writers out there won't have the choice to traditionally publish. Their choice is to query agents and publishers for years and gather up piles of rejections, or self-publish. (Or pay a lot of money to vanity publish, but we won't go into that today.) The hard truth is there are just too many good books out there to all find homes with agents and publishers. So I'm not against traditional publishing. I'm for taking your future into your own hands and making something of yourself.

Vicki

Sales Growth Over Time

I love crunching numbers.  So I decided to take some sales numbers of indie authors over time to see the growth.  I hope you find it as interesting as I did.  I won't comment too much more, I'll let the data speak for itself.  Just pay attention to the growth, and how most authors total sales are largely from the last few months they've been selling, especially as you get into the authors that have really started to sell well.  I'm especially encouraged by the authors who had months of small numbers and then suddenly took off.  This tells me that no book is without hope of selling.  If it's not moving, change the cover, play with the price, try different marketing ideas, join a critique group and make sure it's well written.  If your book isn't selling, there is something you can do about it, don't give up hope.

I'm going to list people in order of total sales, starting with the lowest first.  I hadn't asked anyone about marketing or anything else, but some people did give me comments, which I found interesting so I'll include that here.

*****

Annie Bellet
Jul - 3
Aug - 4
Sept - 3
Oct - 4
Nov - 2
Dec - 12
Jan - 17 (released another book in Jan)
Feb - 18 (released another book in Feb)

Total Sold: 60
Number of Books: 5
Genre: Literary (all short stories), Sci/fi (1 novelette, 1 short story collection), Fantasy (novel)
I don't really promote and I've just started getting actual novels up under the name that has some traditional publishing sales, so I figure it can only go up from here.

*****

K.A. Jordan
Aug  - 16
Sept - 5
Oct  - 4
Nov  - 1
Dec  - 4
Jan  - 16
Feb  - 15

Total Sold:  61
Number of Books: 1
Genre: Contemporary romance

*****

Tiffany Turner
Jan - 3
Feb - 2
Mar - 0
Apr - 3
May - 4  (2nd bk release on Kindle)
Jun - 8
Jul - 11
Aug - 7
Sep - 0
Oct - 0
Nov - 4
Dec - 9
Jan - 18
Feb - 6

Total Sold: 75
Number of Books: 2
Genre: Middle Grade

*****

Talia Jager
Jul - 4
Aug - 6
Sept - 6
Oct - 8
Nov - 3
Dec - 15
Jan - 17
Feb - 20  (released 2nd book)

Total Sold: 89
Number of Books: 2
Genre: YA - drama

*****

Matthew & Stefanie Verish
Jul - 23
Aug - 10
Sept - 2  (raised price)
Oct - 6  (lowered price)
Nov - 14
Dec - 9
Jan - 23  (Added novelette)
Feb - 34

Total Sold: 121
Number of Books: 2
Genre: Fantasy

*****

John Hamilton
Jun - 3
July - 7
Aug - 1
Sep - 2
Oct - 44
Nov - 8
Dec - 19
Jan - 57
Feb - 55

Total Sold: 141
Number of Books: 2
Genre: Horror, Historical Thriller

*****

Steve Silkin
Jun - 1
Jul - 1
Aug - 0
Sept - 3
Oct - 4
Nov - 41*
Dec - 12
Jan - 15
Feb - 103*

Total Sold: 180
Number of Books: 4
Genre: Political Thriller, Short Story Collections
*Kindle Nation Daily sponsorships

*****

Chris J. Randolph
Jun - 15
Jul - 20
Aug - 10
Sep - 41
Oct - 42
Nov - 49
Dec - 20
Jan - 27
Feb - 23

Total Sold: 247
Number of Books: 2
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy

*****

Consuelo Saah Baehr
Aug - 0
Sept - 10
Oct - 20
Nov - 25
Dec - 33
Jan - 60
Feb - 112

Total Sold: 260
Number of Books: 6
Genre: Historical; Women's Fiction/Suspense; Memoir (non-fiction); Short Stories

*****

Scott Cleveland
Jan - 0
Feb - 1
Mar - 0
Apr - 0
May - 1
Jun - 13
Jul - 10
Aug - 26
Sept -17
Oct - 34
Nov - 31
Dec - 42
Jan - 43
Feb - 46

Total Sold: 264
Number of Books: 1
Genre: Sci-Fi

*****

V.J. Chambers
May - 3
Jun - 19
Jul - 21
Aug - 5
Sept - 4
Oct - 2
Nov - 6
Dec - 3
Jan - 6
Feb - 3
Mar - 1
Apr - 0
May - 9
Jun - 7
Jul - 6
Aug - 9
Sept - 3
Oct - 31
Nov - 27
Dec - 70
Jan - 71
Feb - 106

Total Sold: 341
Number of Books: 8 (but were obviously not all out the entire time. Last two released in February)
Genre: YA Supernatural Romance, YA Horror, Urban Fantasy, Horror (adult)

*****

Judi Coltman
Aug - 8
Sept - 4
Oct - 30
Nov - 16
Dec - 17
Jan - 163
Feb - 179

Total sold: 497
Number of books: 1
Genre: Humor

*****

Michael Crane
Jul - 5
Aug - 12
Sept - 12
Oct - 40
Nov - 38
Dec - 107
Jan - 188
Feb - 222

Total Sold: 627
Number of Books: 4
Genre: Horror/Dark Humor, Short Stories

*****

J.M. Pierce
Apr - 5
May - 11
Jun - 11
Jul - 16
Aug -18
Sept - 19
Oct - 127
Nov - 75
Dec - 152
Jan - 123
Feb - 81

Total Sold: 638
Number of Books: 2
Genre: Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy

*****

J.M. Zambrano
Jul - 9
Aug - 3
Sep - 1
Oct - 32
Nov - 373
Dec - 40
Jan - 40
Feb - 81

Total Sold: 659
Number of Books: 2
Genre: Suspense/Thriller, Mystery/Suspense

*****

Joel Arnold
May - 44
Jun - 62
Jul - 100
Aug - 104
Sept - 99
Oct - 71
Nov - 79
Dec - 73
Jan - 107
Feb - 98

Total Sold:  837
Number of Books: 8
Genre: Horror, Short Story Collections, YA, Mystery

*****

Jamie DeBree
Aug - 7
Sept - 9
Oct - 7
Nov - 28  (Lowered to .99 cents)
Dec - 42  (Joined Independent Author Network for marketing)
Jan - 255  (Released 2nd book)
Feb - 391

Total Sold: 847
Number of Books: 3 (one Mar. release)
Genre: 2 Romantic Suspense, 1 Erotic Romance

*****

Daniel Pyle
Aug - 37
Sept - 28
Oct - 59
Nov - 109
Dec - 176
Jan - 260
Feb - 283

Total sold: 1,042
Number of books: 2
Genre: Horror

*****

Suzanne Tyrpak
Aug - 27  (Dating My Vibrator at $2.99)
Sept - 27
Oct - 27
Nov - 158  (lowered price of Dating My Vibrator to .99cents)
Dec - 352  (added Vestal Virgin at .99 cents mid-month)
Jan - 415  (raised price of Vestal Virgin to $2.99 Jan 2, Kept Dating My Vibrator at .99cents)
Feb - 456

Total Sold:  1,462
Number of Books: 2
Genre: Humor, Historical Romance

*****

Anne Marie Novark
Aug - 9
Sept - 4
Oct - 24
Nov - 9
Dec - 131
Jan - 643
Feb - 826

Total sold: 1,646
Number of books: 7
Genre: Regency Romance, Contemporary Western, Contemporary

*****

Katie Salidas
Mar - 37  (Original Price 4.99)
Apr - 378
May - 401
Jun - 175
Jul - 119 - (Price Drop 3.99)
Aug - 109
Sept - 49 - (Price Drop 2.99)
Oct - 51
Nov - 38
Dec - 81 - (Price Drop to 0.99, Released sequel to the series)
Jan - 195
Feb - 124

Total Sold:  1,757
Number of Books: Author has 5, these numbers are for 1 book.
Genre: Urban Fantasy

*****

Sandy Night
Aug - 2
Sept - 8
Oct - 16
Nov - 44
Dec - 97
Jan - 348
Feb - 1,483

Total Sold:  1,998
Number of Books: 1
Genre: Romantic Suspense

*****

William Esmont
May - 1
Jun - 11
Jul - 6
Aug - 11
Sep - 10
Oct - 29  (Released 2nd book at end of the month)
Nov - 40
Dec  - 99
Jan - 538
Feb - 768

Total Sold: 2,025
Number of Books: 2
Genre: 1 Espionage Thriller, 1 General Thriller

*****

Diana Estill
Aug - 8
Sept - 22
Oct - 105
Nov - 94
Dec - 469  (released third book)
Jan - 942
Feb - 612  (price increase on one book)

Total Sold:  2,252
Number of Books: 3
Genre: Humor

*****

Joseph Mitchell
Jun - 5
Jul - 63
Aug - 70
Sept - 113
Oct - 148
Nov - 210
Dec - 722
Jan - 877
Feb - 445

Total Sold:  2,653
Number of Books: 1
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy

*****

Martin Sharlow
Dec - 6
Jan - 8
Feb - 16
Mar - 5
Apr - 7
May - 35
Jun - 56
Jul - 31
Aug - 52
Sep - 68
Oct - 61
Nov - 91
Dec - 151
Jan - 389
Feb - 2,317

Total Sold: 3,293
Number of Books: 5
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Y.A. Fantasy

*****

John Pearson
Jan - 74
Feb - 48
Mar - 110
Apr - 276
May - 136
Jun - 285
Jul - 345
Aug - 287
Sept - 166
Oct - 248
Nov - 72
Dec - 372
Jan - 1,144
Feb - 579

Total Sold: 4,928  (that's since Jul 09)
Number of Books: 1
Genre: Humor

*****

William Meikle
Apr - 100
May - 300
Jun - 500
Jul - 450
Aug - 1,547 
Sept - 2,255

Total Sold: 5,152
Number of Books 8
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror
About 1/2 of the sales were from the Sci-Fi title THE INVASION

*****

Jan Hurst-Nicholson
Jun - 1
Jul - 0
Aug - 0
Sept - 11 (this is when Amazon UK came on line - I think)
Oct - 18
Nov - 34
Dec - 181
Jan - 2,355
Feb - 2,876

Total Sold: 5,476
Number of Books: 5
Genre: Humor

*****

Joseph Nassise
Jan - 7
Feb - 5
Mar - 100
Apr - 106
May - 164
Jun - 161
Jul - 274
Aug - 410
Sept - 431
Oct - 404
Nov - 444
Dec - 844
Jan - 1,633
Feb - 2,121

Total Sold: 7,104
Number of Books: 4 
Genre: Urban fantasy, horror
Each significant jump in sales for me was a result of either a change to the cover or to the description.  I've done very little promotion, aside from an occasional mention on my blog.

*****

L.C. Evans
Feb - 77  (2 Books priced at $1.99)
Mar - 265
Apr - 415
May - 294
Jun - 169  (Raised price to $2.99)
Jul - 143
Aug - 51
Sept - 108  (Released a third book, Jobless Recovery)
Oct - 90
Nov - 82
Dec - 252
Jan - 1,852  (Released fourth book, The Witness Wore Blood Bay and lowered prices to $.99. Got new cover for WITD.)
Feb - 3,702

Total Sold: 7,500
Number of Books: 4
Genre: Mystery, Chick Lit, Non-Fiction

*****

Valmore Daniels
Jul - 13
Aug - 93
Sep - 194
Oct - 1,583
Nov - 1,642
Dec - 1,118
Jan - 1,768  (Released 2nd Book)
Feb - 1,330

Total: 7,641
Number of Books: 2
Genre: Science Fiction / Fantasy

*****

Sibel Hodge
Mar - 44
Apr - 60
May - 158
Jun - 197
Jul - 273
Aug - 312
Sept - 359
Oct - 444
Nov - 472
Dec - 1,152
Jan - 2,073  (released My Perfect Wedding)
Feb - 4,012

Total Sold: 9,556
Number of Books: Mostly 2 books (3rd one released last month)
Genre: Romantic Comedy/Chicklit Mystery

*****

Abigail Lawrence
Apr - 13
May - 46
Jun - 50
Jul - 69
Aug - 104
Sept - 96
Oct - 157
Nov - 281
Dec - 1,802
Jan - 3,500
Feb  3,226

Total Sold: 9,772
Number of Books: 1
Genre: YA Coming of Age

*****

Ellen O-Connell
Feb - 182
Mar - 309
Apr - 300
May - 492
Jun - 864
Jul - 678
Aug - 600
Sept - 673
Oct - 571
Nov - 708
Jan - 2,580
Feb - 1,930

Total Sold: 9,887
Number of Books: 3 
Genre: Romance, Mystery
*****

David McAfee
Mar - 11
Apr - 97
May - 146
Jun - 256
Jul - 350
Aug - 957
Sept - 1,075
Oct - 1,246
Nov - 1,225
Dec - 1,668
Jan - 2,857
Feb - 2,098

Total Sold: 11,986
Number of Books: 5
Genre: Horror

*****

Monique Martin
Feb - 20
Mar - 18
Apr - 25
May - 16
Jun - 12
Jul - 26
Aug - 80
Sept - 411
Oct - 306
Nov - 321
Dec - 1,167
Jan - 4,461
Feb - 5,899

Total sold: 12,780
Number of books: 1
Genre: Paranormal Romance

*****

Rachel Yu
Sept - 134
Oct - 1,081
Nov - 1,690
Dec - 2,507
Jan - 7,146
Feb - 3,626

Total Sold: 16,184
Number of Books: 5
Genre: Picture Books for Children

*****

Lexi Revellian
Aug - 9
Sept - 81
Oct - 664
Nov - 1,559
Dec - 4,281
Jan - 5,940
Feb - 3,692
Mar - 735

Total Sold: 16,952
Number of Books: 1
Genre: Romantic Suspense

In February, Remix was no longer featured on Amazon UK's ebooks under £2 page, which was brilliant exposure - I think this is why sales dropped.

*****

Karen Cantwell
Jun - 45
Jul - 151
Aug - 1,083
Sept - 1,909
Oct - 1,628 (released Marr-nia short story collection)
Nov - 1,505
Dec - 3,685
Jan - 7,213
Feb - 8,429

Total Sold: 25,648
Number of Books: 2
Genre: Mystery, Short Stories

*****

David Dalglish
Feb - 76
Mar - 103
Apr - 341
May - 332
Jun - 475
Jul - 727
Aug - 840
Sept - 843
Oct - 2,146
Nov - 2,366
Dec - 4,635
Jan - 7,514
Feb - 7,682

Total sold: 28,000
Number of books: now up to 8 (plus an Omni).
Genre: all fantasy but for one short-story anthology.

*****

Beth Orsoff
Jun - 4 (1 book, 1 week)
Jul - 118 (released 2nd book in week 3)
Aug - 571
Sept - 767
Oct - 644
Nov - 1,157 (released 3rd book in week 1, put all three books up on B&N Thanksgiving weekend)
Dec - 3,836
Jan - 13,194
Feb - 12,169

Total Sold: 32,460
Number of Books: 3
Genre: Chick Lit, Romantic Comedy

*****

Michael J. Sullivan
(These numbers are approx.)
Apr - 1,000
May - 1,000
Jun - 1,000
Jul - 1,000
Aug - 1,000
Sept - 1,000
Oct - 2,600 (5th book released)
Nov - 7,600
Dec - 10,500
Jan - 11,500
Feb - 10,500

Total Sold: 48,700
Number of Books: 5
Genre: Fantasy

*****

Victorine Lieske
Apr - 7
May - 151
Jun - 456
Jul - 176
Aug - 106
Sept - 389
Oct - 1,401
Nov - 2,670
Dec - 11,162
Jan - 21,484
Feb - 28, 745

Total Sold: 66,766
Number of Books: 1
Genre: Romantic Suspense


*****

Tina Folsom
Jun - 410
Jul - 1,223 (released my 2nd Vampire novel on July 2 & redesigned covers of older books)
Aug - 3,215 (signed up with Smashwords)
Sep - 1,901
Oct - 14,779 (signed up with Pubit!, also: Amazon had my short story Steal Me as a 4-day freebie - sold 9,500 copies, these are included in this figure, because Amazon paid me royalties on this)
Nov - 3,663
Dec - 23,597 (released my 3rd Vampire novel on Dec 2)
Jan - 26,852
Feb - 22,406

Total: 88,046
Genre; Romance/Paranormal/Erotic
Titles: 12 (incl. short stories)

*****

Are you getting your name out there?

As an indie author with a unique name, I felt it was important to build on that and 'get my name out there' so to speak.  A recent post on KB reaffirmed my gut feeling that using your name whenever possible is a huge plus for authors.

When I sign up on forums or social networks, I always use Victorine or Victorine Lieske.  My handle on Twitter is @VictorineLieske.  My website is VictorineLieske.com.  It's the same on Goodreads.com, the Nook boards, and even on this blog.  I like the continuity of using my name on everything, and it's easy for people to find me if they want to.  (Remember, Google is your friend!)

You're not only trying to sell books, you're trying to make a name for yourself.  So use your name!  Let people know who you are.  And if you're worried about posting your name on the Internet, use a pseudonym, but don't sign up for a forum and use BookWriter as your moniker.  (Not unless your name actually is Book Writer.  Then you can.)

I'm not a huge fan of using your initials.  Sure, it worked for J.K. Rowling, but more often than not I find myself forgetting names that are just two letters.  But I see a lot of authors doing it, so it must have some appeal.  To me it gives off an impersonal feeling, so I'd shy away from that.  However, if you do use your initials, make sure you use them everywhere.  Whatever you do, be consistent.

Another thing I do is use my book cover whenever possible.  My avatar on KB is my book cover.  That's what it is on the Nook Boards as well.  I have it as my Facebook photo.  If your book cover is well done, it will definitely help your name recognition to have it on everything you're doing.

Vicki

P.S. You might be wondering why I sign my name "Vicki" instead of "Victorine."  Well, all of my friends call me "Vicki" so I do it to be more casual, and give an approachable feeling to my posts.  Hopefully it's not confusing my brand.